Wimbledon 2018: Successful Start for Cilic, Karlovic & Vekic

Marin Čilić into the second round at Wimbledon (Photo credit: Wimbledon Official/Twitter)

Last year’s Wimbledon finalist has made an impressive start to this year’s tournament with a straight-sets win at the All England Club on Monday.

Marin Cilic, who is the tournament’s third seed, made light work of his first-round encounter against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka wining 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 on the opening day.

Cilic banged down over 21 aces and broke his opponent four times in the match to make sure he safely made it through to the second round without any problem.

Marin Čilić played Roger Federer in last year’s Wimbledon final (Photo Wimbledon Official/Twitter)

Cilic will meet the winner of the Jason Kubler and Guido Pella match in the second round.

Cilic will be hoping to go one better than his 2017 Wimbledon performance when he was beaten in the final by Roger Federer.

Cilic in action in the final of the Queen’s event which he won (Fever-Tree Championships)

The Croatian has had an ideal build-up to the tournament after he won the Queen’s tournament in London last week, beating Novak Djokovic in the final.

Meanwhile, in the women’s draw, Croatian Donna Vekic caused a big upset in the first round beating American fourth seed Sloane Stephens in straight-sets 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the next round.

The No.4 seed falls…

Donna Vekic defeats Sloane Stephens 6-1, 6-3 to book her place in the second round#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/WX24Bhud57

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 2, 2018

Ivo Karlovic also won his first-round match against Mikael Youzhny in four sets to advance. The big-serving Croatian won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-3. There was first-round loses for Borna Coric and Petra Martic.